1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device capable of generating coded image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exists one-dimensional coding technology, as typified by barcodes, as well as two-dimensional coding technology, as typified by QR codes.
With such technology, information to be encoded is encoded to create coded image data, and the coded image data thus created is output upon a printing medium, thereby creating printed materials having a coded image thereon.
In addition, with this technology, the coded image thus created is optically scanned, thereby creating coded image data. By decoding the coded image data thus created, the information described above is read out.
The coded image data may be output singly upon a printing medium, but in many cases the coded image data is output in combination with other text, images, or similar data (to be hereinafter referred to as original image data). When combining the data in this case, if the coded image data overlaps with the original image data, there is a high possibility that an error will occur during the subsequent decoding. As an example of a technique for solving the problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-135444 discloses a technique for combining original image data and coded image data such that they do not overlap. In the technique in the above patent document, the original image data is scaled such that the original image data does not overlap with the coded image data, and then combines the scaled original image data and the coded image data.
However, there is a problem when using the technique disclosed in the above patent document, in that the original image data is reduced in size and becomes hard to read.